The easiest way
by fiesa
Summary: Painful memories. Happy memories. They'll never be able to erase them. But then, they don't want to. Team 7 OneShot.


_A/N Wow. It has been a while since I last wrote a Naruto fan fiction... And it feels good to be back^^ Even though I haven´t published any on this site, this is not my first one. It´s different from my others, though, so I hope you like it. _

_I never actually wrote about Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura because I couldn´t decide on a pairing. Whatever I´d chose, one of them would end up unhappy, so I refrained from doing so^^ However, I found some really good fan fictions here which made me think over that topic again. _

_No, there´s no pairing in this story. If you want to know what kind of stories I read, just ask^^_

_Disclaimer: I don´t own Naruto. Which probably is fine, because I would have ended the manga series long ago, whacking Sasuke over his head and dragging him back to Konoha, vanquishing Akatsuki, Madara and Orochimaru all at once and resurrecting Naruto´s parents, Jiraiya, Asuma, Obito and Rin...^^_

_Team 7 OneShot, slight AU (Sasuke returns after five years)  
_

_Prompt: The last two lines_

_

* * *

  
_

The Easiest Way

There is no way Sakura can forget.

She can´t forget that life isn´t as simple as it seemed to her when she was twelve years old and her seemingly only ambition was for a certain black-haired, dark-eyed boy to notice her. The world still is turning and she still continues living, but she can´t forget the time everything changed and she was forced to grow up. When Sasuke left Konoha and Naruto and the others followed him, returning one after another, each time with injuries even worse than the last one, she knows childish innocence and feigned ignorance are no reason for her to push the blame onto others. It´s not Naruto´s fault Sasuke left. It´s not Kakashi´s, and it´s not hers, either. She knows she can´t even blame it entirely on Sasuke himself.

That´s the point in Sakura´s life when she stands up for the first time. She can´t rely on Naruto. His promise had been sincere, and he hadn´t been able to keep it at first. She can´t forget the look in his eyes when she enters his hospital room: his whole body is wrapped in bandages and his wide grin is wiped from his face. And she can´t rely on Sasuke, either. He has his own ghosts to deal with. She can´t forget his eyes, staring into nothingness in the same hospital bed Naruto once occupied, five years later, not speaking a word but strangely admitting to their presence, hers and Naruto´s, as they sit with him for days. They´re both as broken as she is. So the girl who´s sole ambition it was to be with the people she likes vows to be able to protect herself.

And maybe, maybe one day she´ll be able to tell them she will protect them as well.

* * *

There is no way Sasuke will forget.

The image of his dead parents still looms over him during nights, he still wakes screaming with hurt and anger and terror, Itachi´s face embedded behind his eye lids. He can´t forget what his brother did to him and to the people he loved. He can´t forget what Konoha did to Itachi, either. When Itachi goes down, a sword trough his body Orochimaru had intended to end Sasuke´s life with, when Sasuke listens to the last words his brother whispers into his ear, when he lays on the ground, only half-conscious with loss of blood and chakra, and when Naruto suddenly appears, taking in the situation within seconds and going all _kyuubi_ on Orochimaru, Sasuke finally realizes that there is nothing he can do to fulfill his dream of revenge and wrath. Because Kakashi and Naruto and Sakura were right. Because it´s pointless. Because there is no one left to blame.

That´s the point in Sasuke´s life when he gives in for the first time. He allows Naruto to drag him back to Konoha, piece of shattered bones and ragged flesh he is, telling him he is an utterly sense- and useless piece of an Uchiha. He allows Sakura to hover over him, crying silently and pouring every ounce of chakra she has into his body in her futile attempt to fix him. It´s useless, there are injuries she can´t heal, and they all know. They´re just as broken as he is. He knows there is no way the villagers and many other shinobi will ever trust him again. It´s fine with him, he isn´t sure whether he can trust himself entirely. He thinks Sakura and Naruto are wasting their time on him, but after some time he realizes they´re somehow succeeding in whatever they are doing to him. So slowly, he comes back to life, even if it feels like the effort is drowning him and hurts like hell. He owes them. But he doesn´t say so.

Maybe, maybe one day, he´ll be able to tell his friends how much they really mean to him.

* * *

There is no way Naruto will forget.

People won´t ever allow him to forget his childhood, his status as an outsider, the glances the they throw him when he´s sitting alone in the middle of the playground because everyone has taken his kids away as soon as he came make that clear. He won´t forget his time in the academy, Iruka-Sensei bossing him around and being the next thing close to a father he ever had. Neither will he forget the days with Team 7, Sasuke and him fighting, Sakura smiling at Sasuke and kicking Naruto at the same time. He won´t forget Sasuke´s betrayal, but even though he calls it betrayal in his mind, he knows it wasn´t as much a betrayal as a desperate attempt to fight the past. He won´t forget Sakura´s face when she tells him Sasuke left, or Sasuke´s words he yells at him across the river in the Valley of the End, or the feeling of loss and frustration at his own futile attempt to convince his best friend to return back to Konoha with him. And he won´t forget how he found him, five years later, bleeding to death, Orochimaru looming over him and laughing. Even if he doesn´t exactly remember what happened next – the kyuubi´s memories are fuzzy and red with blood and fury and wrath – he won´t forget Sasuke in the hospital bed, not talking to them but not protesting against their presence, his and Sakura´s.

That´s the point in Naruto´s life when something heavy seems to fall from his heart, something he never knew he had been carrying it around for all his life until it finally left him. He can´t forget the fact that the villagers still glance at him suspiciously, as if he was about to steal their children and devour them. He can´t forget that they mistrust Sasuke equally, not even wanting him to do guard duty, much less taking on missions. He can´t forget that Sakura is an outsider now because she considers herself part of their team and refuses to stop seeing them just in order to keep her reputation clean. They´re all broken, in one way or another, all three of them. But they´re together, they´re what Naruto might call his family because family is what catches you when you fall, like they caught Sasuke. Family makes you strong when you falter, like they gave their combined strength to Sakura. Family protects you when there is danger, like they protect each other. And finally, family is what makes you feel safe, like they always gave him a sense of security.

That´s why, maybe, one day, he´ll tell them he always knew he´d die for them.

* * *

Being Team 7 never had been easy.

There were too many memories, too many things left unspoken. There were too many ghosts – Itachi, the Fourth, Orochimaru, Kyuubi – and the ghosts of what they have been: a younger Naruto, a younger Sakura and a younger Sasuke.

But while being together never had been easy, it still was the easiest way for them.

* * *

_A/N So... I hope I was able to express what I was thinking^^ Thanks for reading, and, if you have the time and the kindness, you could tell me what you think..._


End file.
